Closed Door

“I don’t know what to say about this unexpected sad news…”

A man I had never seen before offered belated condolences with a somber face, sitting in front of a bowl of seolleongtang.

“I’m sorry for coming so late. I should have visited earlier, no, I should have at least seen her off on her final journey… I’m so ashamed.”

The man, who couldn’t even make it to the funeral on time and came belatedly, said he was ashamed. His voice choked up as he struggled to hold back tears, and eventually, he couldn’t finish his sentence as tears flowed from his eyes.

Those tears caused a surge of grief that I had been holding back all this time.

When grandmother was alive, people would lavishly praise her, calling her an angel and saying she would be blessed. But after she passed away, they would just show their faces briefly at the funeral and whisper about inheritance, the store, and property. I was fed up with such behavior. Now, it seemed like someone who was genuinely saddened by grandmother’s death had appeared, and I felt comforted.

…Or so I felt.

Yes, that’s past tense.

Meaning, not anymore.

“Ah, so you’re ashamed.”

“…I’m truly ashamed… Pardon?”

The man who had been sobbing looked puzzled at my indifferent response.

“No. You’ve come all this way, so there’s no need to be that ashamed.”

“Still, I should have visited earlier. I’m truly sorry.”

No, I understand why you couldn’t come earlier. You only had a reason to come after grandmother passed away.

“My name is Lee Dongjae. It was over ten years ago, so I’m not sure if you remember, but I owe your grandmother a great debt. She was the only one who showed me human kindness when I was starving back then. Thanks to her, I didn’t die of hunger. I always meant to visit and pay my respects after becoming successful, to repay her kindness. But I kept putting it off with excuses of being busy, and now…”

The man, Lee Dongjae, shed tears while making choking sounds.

Grandmother.

Yes, grandmother.

Grandmother, who loved and cared for everyone.

She said she chose to run a seolleongtang restaurant in a less safe outskirt area because she wanted to feed many people at a low price.

We argued a lot with our parents, begging her to move to central Seoul, but we never once won against grandmother’s stubbornness.

She said that in places where successful people live, there are plenty of expensive and good foods, so who would come to eat seolleongtang? She insisted that her place should be where people who desperately need a meal stay, rather than those who occasionally visit for nostalgia.

After the ‘Great Upheaval’, they say prices have risen at least tenfold over thirty years, but the price of grandmother’s seolleongtang remained the same as thirty years ago.

Even at such a low price, she would fill the bowls to the brim with seolleongtang as if she was anxious about not being able to give more. She would even bring in people who said they had no money, call it credit, and insist on feeding them for free. Especially when she saw hungry children, she couldn’t just let them go. She would always bring them into the store, feed them, and repeatedly urge them to come back whenever they were hungry.

In this era where a bowl of ramyeon costs 50,000 won, there’s probably no one living in this area who hasn’t tried grandmother’s seolleongtang that can be had for just 10,000 won, and no one who hasn’t received a free meal from grandmother when they didn’t have a penny in their pocket.

That was the kind of person grandmother was, always giving to others throughout her life… so why is it that now that grandmother has passed away, only worm-like scumbags are swarming around like this?

“…so Roy’s situation doesn’t feel like someone else’s problem to me. You probably don’t remember my face from ten years ago, but I can’t help but feel that grandmother’s grandson isn’t a stranger to me. It’s too late to repay grandmother’s kindness, but I’d like to be of help to you, Roy, in her stead. If you ever face difficulties or feel lonely and hard in the future, give me a call. Ah, I’m twenty-seven. You’re nineteen, right? I saw you when you were just a little kid, but you’ve grown a lot. Don’t feel burdened, just think of me as a close older brother…”

“I remember.”

“…Pardon?”

“I remember you, Mr. Lee Dongjae.”

I don’t remember the ten years ago that Dongjae is talking about, but I have ten years of memories that only exist for me. During those ten years, I had never, not even once, forgotten Dongjae. If I could, I would have engraved it into my bones – Dongjae was someone I could never forget unless someone bashed my head in.

“You, you remember?”

Dongjae asked with a slightly awkward smile at my words.

It’s understandable that he’s flustered since I said I remember something that never happened. The ten years of memories I’m talking about are not from the past, but from ten years in the future from now.

“I think I know for sure.”

My hands gripping the tray tightened.

“That I exist here, in this moment, in this place.”

I had been confused, wondering if this was a dream, hell, or a flashback. But the moment I saw Dongjae’s face again, I was certain.

That I am alive and exist here in this moment.

“My lifelong enemy!”

I swung the tray I was holding and hit Dongjae’s head. Dongjae fell backwards with a thud from the tray that struck him hard enough to make a clanging sound. But it was just a light tray, so he probably just fell back in surprise rather than from a big impact. So I decided to give him a real shock.

“You lying con artist bastard!”

I grabbed the hot seolleongtang pot with my hands and splashed it on Dongjae.

“Arghhhh! What the hell…”

“In the name of love and justice, I will not forgive you!”

I sat on top of Dongjae as he was trying to shake off the hot broth and struck his head with the empty pot. Unlike the tray, this made a dull thud.

“This is for swindling our parents’ inheritance!”

Thwack.

“This is for selling off grandmother’s store!”

Thwack.

“This is for using grandmother’s name to scam people.”

Thwack.

“And this is for my life.”

“R-Roy! Roy, what are you doing?!”

The other customers who had been watching the sudden chaos in a daze finally came to their senses and pulled me off Dongjae. Even as I was being dragged away by the customers, I threw the pot I was holding towards Dongjae. The pot hit Dongjae’s head with a satisfying thud before falling to the floor.

“Oh my, what’s all this commotion?”

“Is that person okay? Is he dead?”

Dongjae, who had been making a fuss about the hot seolleongtang broth, was now lying peacefully with his eyes closed as if dead.

“Let go of me. I didn’t hit him hard enough to kill him.”

I shook off the hands holding my arms and let out a sigh.

“Someone please call the Management Bureau.”

“To, to turn yourself in?”

What nonsense.

I glared at the customer who was spouting nonsense without reading the room, then approached Dongjae and grabbed him by the hair.

“Look at this bastard’s face.”

“Oh my, what happened to him?”

“His face suddenly aged so much.”

“His face must have changed from the shock…”

Crazy. I’ve never heard of someone’s face aging over ten years from being hit with a pot. Anyway, realizing once again that these people weren’t proper humans either, I weakly waved my hand.

“I mean to report a crime committed by an Awakened person.”